Sleep Well Beast

To celebrate the one year anniversary of Sleep Well Beast, 4AD is releasing a Special Limited Edition Forest Hills Green Vinyl version of the album. Limited to 100 copies.

The National will release of a special edition of their Grammy winning Sleep Well Beast (4AD) to be sold during The National Presents: There's No Leaving New York. The two-day event at Forest Hills Stadium will take place September 29 and 30 and features The National, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Future Islands, Cat Power, Cigarettes After Sex, Phoebe Bridgers, U.S. Girls, Bully and Adia Victoria.

Weekend Pass: With one purchase of the record, the first 50 customers will receive a two-day General Admission BOWL ticket to The National's There’s No Leaving New York festival. All BOWL tickets are for the amphitheater, and the seats are bleachers without backs. As long as your cushion does not obstruct the leg room of the person behind you, you are welcome to bring a folding seat cushion for back support. Attachable seat backs are not allowed. The special edition LP will be limited to one per customer.

Sleep Well Beast

Produced by member Aaron Dessner with additional production by Matt Berninger and Bryce Dessner. The album was mixed by Peter Katis and recorded at Aaron’s Long Pond studio in Hudson Valley, NY. From the sombre piano chords of Nobody Else Will Be There, with a weary, hollowed-out Matt Berninger sighing: “You said we’re not so tied together / What did you mean?” it’s clear this is an album about separation, although Berninger has stated it’s not autobiographical. Strings peek into the mix as the opener builds gently to a crescendo that never arrives. A stirring example of The National as masters of restraint, it would have been entirely at home on Trouble Will Find Me. A thundering tom rhythm from the ever-innovative Bryan Devendorf ushers in Day I Die and a typically wry Berninger line: “Let’s get high enough to see our problems”. It also introduces the first of several lacerating guitar riffs from the Dessner twins. Indeed, the album, scattered with electronic loops, is at turns both the band’s most and least guitar-centric. The Crazy Horse-like solo on first single The System Only Dreams In Total Darkness tears through the heart of a song built for stadiums.